How to Prevent Computer Security Risk and How to Keep Your Small Business Safe

You know that computer security is important to your small business. Butdo you know exactly what you need to do today to protect your business?Do you know all of the risks to your business computer system? Do youknow the steps you need to take to protect your business computer system?

We hear reports of computer hackers breaking into business computernetworks to attack or shut-down an Internet site, to disrupt businessoperations, or to gain access to confidential information. Thesehigh-tech break-ins are only part of a far broader area of security risksthat your business faces today.

Some high-tech risks require high-tech responses. Others call for morecommon-sense measures. A well-considered, disciplined approach tocomputer security may be all that you need to significantly reduce therisks to your computer system.

What does computer security mean? From a business point of view,computer security simple means that your computer systems willfunction and your stored information on your computer system will beavailable to you as needed for your business.

Hardware Failure

Precautions can be taken to protect against certain risks such as:theft, breakage, power surges, voltage fluctuation, outages, anddisasters including fire, flood and other unthinkable catastrophes.Maintenance agreements provide fast and reliable service in the eventof equipment breakdown.

Extra equipment provides in-house backup for uninterrupted serviceuntil the repairperson arrives. Many firms buy inexpensive mail-in orcarry-in maintenance and maintain extra hardware to swap in asneeded. For example, they keep one backup printer for every five printers in use and one backup PC for every 20, depending, of course,on age and reliability of the hardware. Redundant Array of IndependentDisks (RAID)-equipped servers and duplicate or backup servers can addredundancy and reduce the risk of being shut down by equipment failure.

The quality of low-cost computer or server "clones" may be significantlylower than that of brand-name systems. Extremely low-cost systems oftenare made with whatever less costly components are available at themoment. Such components may be inherently less reliable, and thecompatibility of the specific components used may not be rigorously tested.

Regular backups, with at least a weekly copy of the backed-up data keptoff-site are, of course, a necessity and the most effective way to minimizedata loss when inevitable hardware breakdowns occur.

Careful disaster planning is more crucial than ever to assess the risks anddamage of catastrophic system failure and the implementation of appropriate disaster recovery resources. Full duplicate off-site systemsincluding servers, data and communications links may be necessary toassure continuation of service without interruption in the event of catastrophic disaster. Such redundancy can be farmed-out to a local firmthat specialist in the backup and safe storage of your critical computersystem data. Generally, the expense of full-system redundancy often isunnecessary for small businesses. For you, as long as none of your stored data is lost, restoring your system functions within several hours or evenseveral days may be tolerable.

Software Failure

Application software can malfunction for a number of reasons. Failure of anapplication program can occur through an accidental erasure of acomponent piece of the program, its location in the wrong subdirectory, orany of a number of other arcane causes. Contemporary programs arrive inmultiple parts on multiple disks, CD-ROM or downloaded files that get installed in many directories and subdirectories, as well as altering systemconfiguration and setup files to serve the application's needs.

The loss or corruption of one small program utility may prevent the entireprogram application from operating properly. The change of one parameteror setting (which easily can happen inadvertently or during the installationof another piece of software) is enough to disrupt the proper functioning ofan application. The best protection against application software failure is:

~ keep the original program source (disks, CD-ROMs, saved and backed-up downloaded files) secure off-site (outside of your office) ~ install software from backup copies of the originals, and use only authorized and registered copies of software applications (so that the original software application vendor is available for technical support, replacement of disks, bugs fixes, and software updates).

Network software is notoriously finicky and requires frequent attention. Someone familiar with the network software either on staff or available onshort notice is essential to troubleshoot and restore the network when itcrashes, slows to a crawl or just doesn't act right. In some situations, lossof access to application programs, loss of data, or loss of access to data when the network is down can be minimized by backing up or mirroringdata on a local hard drive or floppy disk and by having key software such asword processing applications loaded also on local PC hard drives.

Corruption of software by viruses is another growing security risk, which isbest handled by carefully designing procedures to limit unauthorized accessto systems, by discouraging use of unauthorized software and by using specialized virus protection software. Some offices have systems thatautomatically bar any new software from being loaded even onto an individual PC on the network. Others automatically scan all new software forviruses. Anti-virus software must be updated continually to enable it toidentify new viruses that are constantly being created and spread. Automatic update features are available for the major anti-virus softwareprograms and should be implemented.

A particular problem is software that is acquired electronically, such as fromthe Internet, whether public domain software or unauthorized copies ofprograms. Seemingly minor items such as games, utilities, screen savers ormacros of unknown origin and provenance may put you at serious risk of contracting a virus. Email attachments are a frequent source of infected code. You need to be attentive to suspect email sent to you. Always payattention to what you are loading or downloading onto your computer.

Through the introduction of a computer viruses, your software programsand if not your entire computer network may be unusable by the simpleinstallation of unauthorized software application on your computer system.Make sure your staff understands the importance of your policy of banningthe installation of unauthorized software. Then periodic "sweep" your computers to insure that your staff is helping you protect your computerinvestment.

These simple steps may result in big dividends to the continued operation of your small business.

Copyright Steven Presar

About the Author

Steven Presar is a recognized small business technology coach, Internet publisher, author, speaker, and trainer. He provides personal, home, and computer security solutions at www.ProtectionConnect.com. He provides business software reviews at www.OnlineSoftwareGuide.com. In addition, he publishes articles for starting and running a small business at www.Agora-Business-Center.com. Be sure to sign-up for the SOHO newsletter at the site.